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As one BBC reporter accurately put it, intellectual property in the last century was about protecting the producer or creator (author, song writer, inventor, etc.). In this century, intellectual property law has to protect the user (the general public, you and me, the readers, listeners, buyers).

Here's the problem with our existing intellectual property laws. Second of a 3 part series this week.

The problem is that in this century information is so critical, so essential to life itself, that society cannot afford to have someone "own" information. Examples:

* Drug companies have the cure for many diseases. But they refuse to release or produce the drugs.

* In China, the government "owns" and has put out of existence the word "democracy." Working with Google, ironically, you cannot google that word on the web.

* Some companies now want to own genes, and patent life itself.

We could go on. If you are reading this, you are reading it courtesy of Tim Berners Lee, who invented the web. And gave it away for free. If he had patented the www, you and I would not be able to view each other's web sites. Coming up Friday: the answer!

This was a big hot month for the intellectual property issue. First of a 3 part series this week.

Earlier this month Steve Jobs made big news with his proposal that there be no copyright protection software for music. That is, anyone can download anything for free. Of course, Jobs did not think this up on his own. The kids are forcing the music industry to this. Apparently, illegal free downloads are up more than ever. And record company sales are down more than ever. Big problem. Keep in mind the Gen Y economy is driving this issue, not courts, not outdated laws, not big industry executives.

Also, in a step-backwards that resolves nothing, Google cannot link to newspaper articles in Europe according to a Brussels Court.

And most fascinatingly, Google is now in the process of putting on the web EVERY book EVER written, some 32 million books. They are doing this with the cooperation of some major publishers, who want Google to link to their books so people will buy them. But now those very same publishers that are working with Google, are also suing Google over copyright and intellectual property infringement.

Confused? You better be. If you are not confused, you don't under the intellectual property issue at all!

Take a guess. If you went back to 1900, you and I would not be able to cook supper in a 1900 kitchen. If we went back to 1920, just 20 years later, you and I could cook supper easily. My grandmother had a job between 1900 and 1920 teaching women how to cook with the new gas stove.

I had forgotten that when I was growing up folks used to use the phrase "Now we're cooking with gas" to mean modern and progressive. Then Julie and I were watching an old Collete Corbett movie and when she said it, it all made sense. (Photo of a kitchen in 1900)

So, what do you think the kitchen of 2020 will look like (clue: if transported ahead to 2020 you couldn't make supper) ?

Contest time: in what year do you think the first road will be converted to rail?

So, I was talking about how the whole "rails to trails" movement might soon get turned around, and the trails would be converted back to rails. Son Willie was quite offended. "No, he said, roads to rails."

Lots of young folks ride bikes, like Willie and 17 year old Mark Dockery, who made a great comment under Jan 22 post on why kids don't drive. But it wasn't always that only kids rode bikes. It used to be that all adults rode bicycles. So bicycles may make the comeback with trains.

What's clear is that between 2010 and 2030 roads will be turned into rails. The question is when.Take a guess: winner gets a big prize!

Well, the Brits have done it again.This time they have decided that every school child in the country should have Internet access:outside of school. See the story.

What brilliance and insight and recognition. Recognition that in this century, as my co-author Julie Coates states, most of the learning resources are outside of school, not in it. Paying for Internet access outside of school is government at its best.

Here's my simple no-cost model for America to redesign its education system for the 21st century:

Copy the Brits. Just read what the Brits are doing, and then copy them. The UK seems to continue to outpace the U.S. in restructuring society for this century. See our post tomorrow for a great example.

The funny thing is: they get kicked around in college and drop out. And the first thing they do when they get rich: set up a fund for learning and education.

So Julie and I are watching TV one night and the Segway inventor Dean Kamen is on. "Did he drop out of college?" she asked me. "Yes," I replied, having done my homework on boy drop outs.

But what was fascinating was that Dean Kamen, like Bill Gates and many other boy drop outs, has set up a fund for learning and education. It's not that college drop outs don't get education. It's that they do get it. (last in a series this week celebrating college drop outs).

In all probability, our next billionnaire will be Mark Zuckerberg, another college drop out.

Not that he didn't try in college. But his university, Harvard, revoked his access to the Internet. Then they charged him with breaching security, violating copyrights, and piracy. Then they said he hacked into unauthorized college sites. Mark Zuckerberg's crime was creating Facebook, which it is rumored he will sell shortly. Read more on Mark here.

Mark Zuckerberg was supposed to graduate in 2006. Harvard's next move? Probably to ask him for a donation! (It's "celebrate college drop outs" week here at NineShift).

We enter a new period of transition and conflict over competing visions and models for creating the new education system of the 21st century. Time Magazine is clearly fixed on its 19th century vision. Just right for preparing your son and daughter to farm 40 acres.

Tiny Osseo, Minnesota, a town of just one square mile, has gone wireless. See the story. Wireless is not just for big cities and downtown areas. Wireless should be, and will be, for every small town and village as well. Nice job Osseo.